Guest Review: 21 Jump Street

Today is a treat for you. My friend Phil (nicknamed “Megaman”) and his wife scored some advance prescreening tickets to 21 Jump Street. (LUCKY!!) After viewing, they so graciously decided to share their thoughts on this new film coming to theaters this upcoming weekend. Enjoy their review below!

Synopsis: “Schmidt and Jenko are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier – and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind..” (Collider)

Even if someone is not familiar with the original 21 Jump Street series, this attention-getting action/comedy film leaves no questions behind. The plot begins with two opposing high school students that later rely on each other to graduate from the police academy. After teaming up and many screw-ups later, the pair land their last hope at 21 Jump Street: a group of young-looking undercover cops, poised as high school students.

The two begin life anew as their polar-opposites from high school, in hope of bringing down a synthetic high school drug ring.

The adult-themed comedy is a fast-paced story combined with the comically stereotyped ideas of a police lifestyle mixed with plenty of high school dramas. Although some scenes are over-dramatic and obviously unreal, they add to the movie’s over-the-top comical style mixed with the occasional vulgarity. Similar movies would include: The Hangover, Dude Where’s My Car and Bridesmaids.

Other things of note about 21 Jump Street: The cinematography added to the “believable factor” as it were, and made you feel like you were there. The soundtrack was appropriate and a tribute to the original series from the 80’s. While sitting amongst the very diverse audience members that took advantage of this advanced screening with us, we noticed that everyone of all ages (both old and young) seemed to enjoy it. A fun re-emergence of a classic series from another time.

Who knows? Pretty soon the rumored Magnum, P.I. film may be hitting theaters! 😉

We give this movie a 3 out 5 stars.

Thank you to Mr. & Mrs. “Megaman” for the early review!

What do you think? Will you be seeing this during the upcoming weekend in theaters? Let me know in the comments!

I have zero interest in seeing this, sorry to be a gloomy gus, but I just don’t like the cast. I love the TV show and I was initially interested in this given Johnny Depp’s rumored involvement. Well A-Team’s got a movie so it’s only a matter of time that Magnum PI, Hunter, Airwolf, etc will have theirs too. I actually don’t mind seeing the film version of Crime Story though 🙂

I hear ya rtm. I was actually not very excited to see the movie when I was waiting (+1 hrs) in line. But I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was the crowd that was in the theater or possibly the movie itself…. in either case my wife and I ended up walking out of the movie in good spirits. I would not mind watching it again, but I would probably wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it with some likeminded friends. =)